


There's Comfort in the Bottom of a Swimming Pool

by murderousCroww



Series: erisol oneshots [3]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Collegestuck, Dialogue Heavy, Humanstuck, M/M, Rated teen for swearing, Swimming, Swimming Pools, breaking and entering with your so called rival, can be read as romantic or platonic, just guy things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:13:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26408542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/murderousCroww/pseuds/murderousCroww
Summary: Eridan is tasked with getting Sollux out of the house at one in the morning. He wants to study for his final exams, but no, Karkat insists that Sollux has to "loosen up a bit." So, Eridan takes Sollux to the place that he always goes when he's wound up too tight.
Relationships: Eridan Ampora/Sollux Captor
Series: erisol oneshots [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2053296
Comments: 6
Kudos: 42





	There's Comfort in the Bottom of a Swimming Pool

**Author's Note:**

> the song title comes from the song "swimming pool" by the front bottoms. the song doesn't really relate to the fic in any way but its a banger tho so you should listen to it

You were  _ supposed  _ to be studying for your finals tonight, however, your plans changed when Karkat texted you begging to get his roommate, Sollux, out of the house before they both go insane. He says that Sollux has to loosen up a bit, do something fun instead of sitting on his computer for 20 hours a day. You cannot begin to fathom why Sollux is suddenly your responsibility considering it’s fairly well known that you and him don’t get along. You call him your rival because you know he hates it and it's entertaining to piss him off. You don’t want to go over to Karkat’s place and babysit Sollux at 1 am, but Karkat’s probably your closest and only real friend and you don’t want to upset him right now. So, you text Sollux that you’re coming over to pick him up and that he should be ready in fifteen minutes. You leave him on read when he asks why. 

To be honest, you don’t have a plan for what you’re going to do or where you’re going to go. You figure that you’ll just know exactly what he needs once you see him. You contemplate taking him out for drinks, but you do still technically need to study tomorrow especially if you aren’t going to have time tonight. 

When you arrive at Sollux and Karkat’s dorm you can hear the two of them arguing through the walls.

“Are you setting me up KK? You complain about how I’m spending too much time in my room and then suddenly fishfuck randomly texts me to say that he’s taking me out on some sort of date? And I can’t say no?” 

“It’s not a date! It better fucking not be a date! I’d be more willing to let you waste away your life in your bedroom if it was doing something productive! Like studying for your exams so you don’t fail and get kicked out of school!”

“I said I’d get to it!”

“The clock is fucking ticking, Captor.” 

The walls of the school dorms are notoriously thin, you wouldn’t be surprised if the whole school could hear their squabbling. You feel bad for whoever their next-door neighbours are. You have the privilege of living off-campus in an apartment that your Father bought for you. However, rent is expensive and he’s apparently done giving out handouts so you struggle to make ends meet almost every month. Your tuition is largely paid by your scholarship so you’re mostly trying to pay rent and buy groceries by working a few part-time jobs. You aren’t living as luxuriously as you once were, that’s for sure. 

You knock loudly on the door of house Captor-Vantas and the arguing stops.

“Ugh,” You can hear Sollux rolling his eyes from the other side of the door. “That’s probably ED.”

“Wonderful, now go have fun,” Karkat replies through, what you can only assume is, clenched teeth.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much impossible with Mr.-”

“I can hear you two, you know.” You call through the door. Sollux is the one to open it. He looks at you, then at Karkat, then looks at you again. He’s very suspicious of you two.

“Is KK paying you?” He asks and you shake your head. 

“Just go with him, idiot.” Karkat chimes before quickly ushering Sollux out the door and slamming it behind him. The two of you stand in awkward silence for a moment before you make your way to the stairs. Sollux, with nothing else to do, reluctantly follows you. He follows you all the way to your car, an obnoxiously purple sports car that you got for your 16th birthday, before stopping. He crosses his arms in a huff. 

“I’m not getting in that car until you tell me where you’re taking me,” He snaps.

“You caught me, I’m taking you out to a field to kill you.” You joke in a sickeningly sweet tone. Sollux doesn’t laugh. You roll your eyes at him before slipping into the driver’s side. He hesitates, clearly still unsure if he should trust you, but eventually decides to get into the passenger's seat.

“That doesn’t answer my question, ED. Where are we going?” He asks again. You are tempted to drown out his questions by turning on the radio but ultimately decide not to. You’re supposed to be getting him out of the house, right? Have him have a little fun for once in his miserable life. Suddenly, you know exactly where to take him.

“It’s a surprise.” You say. Sollux scowls in reply but doesn’t press further. However, the two of you do end up getting into multiple silly arguments before eventually ending up at your destination. 

“Sopor Public Indoor Swimming Pool?” Sollux reads the sign on the front of the building. “But it’s closed.”

“Amazing detective work, Sol. A real bang-up job you just did, you super sleuth.” 

“Fuck you, ED. Wasting my precious time by taking me to a closed swimming pool. Are you gonna take me home now or what?” You don’t answer him, instead, you tell him to wait there and walk over to the right side of the building where you know an open window always is. You shimmy it open enough for you to slip through and walk over to the front doors. You do jazz hands before opening the door and letting Sollux inside. 

“Ta-da.” You say. Sollux has started to look increasingly worried, just by a bit.

“What if we get caught? I do not want this night to end with KK picking me up from the police station.”

“We ain’t gonna get caught, Sol, chill out. I do this all the time, y’know, and I’ve never been caught once.”

“Well never say never, Ampora.” Sollux hisses. You ignore his sour attitude and lead the way to the pool deck. Once there, you slip off your turtleneck and let it gently fall to the ground. Next, you take off your glasses and place them safely on your shirt. 

“What the FUCK are you doing ED?” He borderline growls at you. 

“Getting ready for a swim? What does it look like I’m doing?” You respond, pretending to ignore the fact that Sollux is trying to subtly stare at your chest. When you start undoing your jeans he looks away and you note the slight blush you see on his cheeks. Once you’re stripped down to nothing but your boxers you dive into the pool. 

“C’mon in Sol, the water is freezing fucking cold.” 

“No thanks.” He says, toeing off his shoes and taking off his socks. He carefully roles his jeans up to just under the knee before sitting down on the edge of the pool and dipping his feet into the water. He tenses at the temperature before relaxing again. You watch him closely. You don’t really mean to, you just can’t seem to look away. You swim over and start to expertly tread water right in front of him.

“You brought a towel, right?” He asks. You pause for a moment and he starts to laugh at you. “You didn’t bring a towel? Are you planning to get into your fancy car soaking wet?”

“Listen, asshole, I didn’t know where I was going to go when I left my apartment! So of fucking course I didn’t pack a towel, idiot.”

He raises an eyebrow at you, “I’m the idiot, huh?” You roll your eyes again, you have a feeling you might be doing that a lot tonight, but it’s much less exasperated than normal. Plus, both of your insults seem to be lacking the bite they once had. Weird. 

You swim a few laps before paddling back over to Sollux. You hoist yourself up and sit on the edge beside him, the night air making you shiver. He gives you a look that you might even consider tender which makes your heart do a weird thing that you decide to ignore. Between the moonlight coming in from the windows and the shimmery blue light reflecting off the pool you almost consider him kind of pretty. Pretty in a weird boyish nerd way, but pretty nonetheless. You like his company a lot more when he’s not constantly trying to ignore you. The two of you kind of stare at each other for a bit, not saying anything. You get a lot of dumb, impulsive ideas, but decide to act on none of them. Not tonight at least. After some time Sollux breaks the silence by clearing his throat and kicking the water a bit.

“Can I go home now?” He asks.

“What? Too much fun and adventure?” You reply. He snorts.

“This is barely adventure, ED. Next time I’ll show you  _ real _ adventure.”

You tilt your head to the side, “Next time?” 

“I mean like if you ever come and kidnap me again.” He stumbles and you snicker. He rolls his eyes at you but is smirking anyways which makes you smile. You stand up and offer a hand to help him up. He takes one look at your, still slightly damp, hand and cringes before standing up himself. 

The drive back home is silent, not even your usual bickering. Instead of the silence being awkward, it’s nice. You walk Sollux to his dorm because you are nothing if not a gentleman. It’s around 2:45 am when you and Sollux part ways, Karkat asleep as Sollux didn’t seem to be greeted with any yelling or scolding. You drive home and try not to overthink about if your relationship with Sollux has changed in some way. Instead, you focus on figuring out ways to improve your times when it comes to backstroke. Sollux texts you goodnight for some reason and you fall asleep with a smile on your face. 

**Author's Note:**

> fun fact: my working title for this was "the sexual tension between you and your rival who you are secretly in love with"  
> follow my twitter (@murderousCroww)


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